Apocalypse When?: How the New England Patriots Dynasty Will End

After Rodney Harrison clutched his second interception and mockingly flapped his arms, flying around Alltell Stadium, it was confirmed. After Bill Belichick and his father Steve were bathed with Gatorade, there was no doubt. Any shadow of doubt is forever put into light by NFL Films, showing Willie McGinist holding a mock copy of the next day's Patriots Football Weekly, with radio play-by-play announcer Gil Santos putting a stamp on Super Bowl XXXIX. "Back-to-back, three out of four! Yes, it's a dynasty." The New England Patriots, led by future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady, are this decade's dynasty. Any other claim can be refuted with strong statistical information. The question is not whether they are or not. The question is, when will it end? Conventional wisdom points to 2010 as the last possible year for the Patriots to be put in that realm. After all, logic calls us to group NFL dynasties by decade. The Packers had the birth years of the '60s, the Steelers ruled the '70s, the ... (link)